


Pretending

by Ozzyyy



Series: I Make Misferns Mainstream [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Dream Team SMP Spoilers, Eret Redemption (Video Blogging RPF), Eret-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Fox Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Gen, He/Him Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Heavy Angst, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Hybrid Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Misfern, Misferns, Mostly A Vent Fic, Older Sibling Niki | Nihachu, Post-Manberg Festival on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Pretending everything is Okay when it DEFINITELY isn't, Spoilers, Traitor Floris | Fundy, but not much man, for 1/6/21, ignorance is bliss, just hurt, this one hurts, your honor they're family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28602267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ozzyyy/pseuds/Ozzyyy
Summary: Everything isn't okay. But for a second, Eret will pretend it is. Just to see his family again.--Aka, Misferns HURTS ME PHYSICALLY so i'm pretending canon doesn't exist
Relationships: Eret & Floris | Fundy, Eret & Floris | Fundy & Niki | Nihachu & Ranboo, Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Eret & Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Niki | Nihachu & Ranboo, Ranboo & Floris | Fundy
Series: I Make Misferns Mainstream [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098674
Comments: 15
Kudos: 257





	Pretending

**Author's Note:**

> tw: descriptions of past trauma though not intense
> 
> spoilers for 1/6/21 dream smp stream 
> 
> hey guys, everything hurts. i want to brag that i knew niki would snap but wow this does not feel good-- oh and please dont mention sleepy bois inc i will break down in tears--

Eret doesn't expect to have several more occupants in his palace, but it's not entirely uncommon that his castle is used as a shelter. 

It fills up the empty rooms.

He's not extremely aware of what his siblings are doing. He's not sure he wants to know. There's levity in being ignorant, and unsure. Eret knows that's selfish. 

But when he sees Niki laying across a dragged in sofa, holding Fundy close, he can't bring himself to care. Ignorance is bliss. He's starting to see why Ghostbur enjoys it so much. 

Eret can't bring himself to sleep, not when there were so many people in his palace and such a war raging outside. He knows, for the most part, Phil and Techno are done with their explosions. But he can't say the same for Dream and whatever spies he has, because of course he has spies. 

So he walks. Almost every night, the young king walks down each hall and keeps alert for any intruders. 

He passes by an exhausted Tommy and Tubbo, holding each other like they haven't in a millennia. To be fair, they really haven't. Eret doesn't dare wake them, instead picking up another spare blanket and draping it over the boy's forms. For all the trouble they are, for all the disasters they've caused--

They're just kids. 

Eret crosses over a slumped over Quackity. He knows they've had their quarrels in the past, their issues. Eret is the king, Quackity is the rebellious leader of a movement unheeded. 

Some part of that anger dissipated today. Under one roof, there wasn't much arguing. Everyone was tired, exhausted, really, and broken. Deeply, truly, broken. For all their battles, they've come to recognize an unheard truce.  
For the nights till they recover, they won't fight. And the peace is a salve on their wounds. 

Eret wishes it could stay this way forever. 

Ghostbur doesn't sleep. He's not sure if that's a new habit or not. He stares out the front of the palace, on the highest peak, and stares at L'manburg. Eret doesn't disturb him. For their shaky alliance, Eret is grateful, and he doesn't want to accidentally trudge up any broken memories of the past that he can't take back. 

(He's missed Wilbur's smiling at him, how his approval made him so happy. Speaking so kindly of him, Eret could almost believe Wilbur's forgiven him.) 

Eret's travels bring him back to the throne room, where Niki and Fundy are still resting. Now, however, a new figure is nestled between them, having awoken the two. 

He's at immediate alert, fingers drifting to his sword handle as he approaches, "Is everything alright?" 

Niki looks up at him and smiles, "Yeah, sorry, we didn't mean to worry you. Ranboo had a nightmare." 

At that, Ranboo whines, "You make it sound like I'm such a baby!" Fundy, who's chin currently rests on the dual colored boy's head, cackles. 

"Because you are." 

"I was just worried..." Ranboo mumbles, causing Fundy to pause in his teasing ministrations and squeeze the boy tighter to his chest. 

"We're here, bud. You don't have to worry." 

Niki nods, grabbing at the tossed blanket and placing it across their laps. Satisfied, she takes Ranboo's hand and squeezes it, smiling, "See? Right here. Still alive." 

Ranboo's scared eyes dance anxiously between Eret, standing awkwardly away from the familial interaction, and Niki. 

She notices this and tugs Eret over, making him kneel beside the couch. She gestures with a nod to Ranboo. 

Eret clears his throat, "Yeah I-I'm okay. Alive, everything good like that." 

"God, you're so lame." Fundy snorts. 

Eret shoots him a glare with not much heat behind it. 

"I thought you were dead." Ranboo says, voice barely above a whisper with how broken he sounds, "All of you. I saw it. On the ground. It was game and you lost, you chose wrong." 

The trio goes quiet at that, all simultaneously worried by what the youngest was saying. 

"I thought I could fix it... but-but you didn't want me." 

"Ranboo--" Eret starts, now thoroughly disturbed, gains his attention, "You- You remember last week? When we were talking about... sides and everything? How in the end, we need to choose people, not sides?" 

Ranboo nods, eyes wide and wet with tears.

Eret glances between Niki and Fundy, "I-I can't speak for everyone, but I think we agree. We choose each other. And we definitely choose you. Not because-because of some gain in wars or to stop losing. Trust me I've--" He snorts, humorless, "I've lost enough that I'm desensitized to it. We're... a really weird and fucked up family, man. Even if we don't say it, we'll always choose each other first before tactical advantage." 

"We can't lose a game if we have each other, right? Cause... I mean, at that point-- we've already won." Fundy mumbles, embarrassed by the sappy family discussion he usually brushes off with a joke.

Niki cradles Fundy's cheek with a little laugh, "Cheesy, but you're right." She gives Ranboo a long, kind, look, "We all choose you. Fuck sides. Fuck teams. We have each other, no matter what side of a war we're on." 

"And family's not a side, is it?" Eret asks, glancing to Ranboo.

He shakes his head mutely, sniffling. Ranboo wipes the tears from his cheeks and reaches out for Eret, arms open wide.

"Oh-- alright." Eret relents, letting the boy koala grapple him before taking his place, so Ranboo was in his lap. Fundy grabs another spare blanket and tosses it over their shoulders, leaning and placing his head on them. Eret takes off his sword sheath and tosses it aside, giving Niki room to snuggle up in the pile. She wraps her arms around the held duo, then tangles her fingers in Fundy's coat as she pulls them all impossibly closer. 

Eret lets his eyes shut and his head lean back. He knows, ignorance cannot stand. He cannot pretend forever. 

Niki's burned down her town's first tree. Fundy laughed as his city fell. Ranboo's panic room isn't that well hidden. 

He knows, sooner rather than later, they will need to address the wrongs in this. That they've done unrecoverable damage. To themselves, to others. But every time he thinks of it, Eret's heart aches and tears roll down his cheeks, thinking of losing what he just barely got back within his grasp.

So, Eret pretends. He presses his face into Fundy's mess of orange curls and thumbs circles into Niki's shoulder and pretends they're alone. That the world is kind and his family was never broken. That he didn't lose his chance to learn who Ranboo was before he was destroyed by war. 

And if that's all he can handle right now, it will be.


End file.
